Did You Know?: Horticulture Park

May 1, 2013

Douglas
Booth and Kelsey Houin have a picnic in Horticulture Park. The two are planning
a wedding at the park in June. (Purdue University photo/Mark Simons)
Download Photo

Home to more than 300 types of trees and plants, Horticulture
Park provides a nearby escape from Purdue's campus, as well as academic experiences
for horticulture and forestry classes.

Located on State Road 26 just west of McCormick Road, the 24-acre
park officially opened May 10, 1967. C.W. Beese, professor of engineering and a
plant enthusiast, donated the park's central parcel of land. Beese originally
started the park's plant collection in the 1940s. Other portions of the park
come from the estate of R.B. Stewart, and the neighboring Wabash Valley
Nursery.

Though the park's central area is a maintained landscape, it
feathers back into a natural wooded area. Mulched walking trails snake
throughout the park and are accessible from parking lots off of McCormick Road
and State Road 26.

The Grounds Department cares for the park. Scott Helmkamp,
grounds and landscape supervisor, oversees the efforts to care for and maintain
the park. Maintenance includes mowing, pruning trees, fertilizing, controlling
weeds and cleaning up after guests.

The park is open during daylight hours for recreational
walking and biking, and it is frequently used for group picnics. It is also
used academically for forestry and horticulture identification classes. A large
portion of Purdue's horticulture and forestry collections are housed in the
park, and students are tasked to distinguish different types by sight, even
during the bare winter months.

"Such a beautiful area that's used for academics and the
general public and is so close to campus is an excellent asset to Purdue,"
Helmkamp says. "It's a quiet
getaway from the rest of campus that is just minutes away."

Although it is a popular location, Ted Sharp, equipment
operator and dubbed the unofficial park curator, says the grounds are easy to
maintain.

"Considering the amount of guests that I see take
advantage of the park, there isn't much litter or mess to pick up," Sharp
says. "The people who come out and enjoy it are also very conscious about
caring for the park and keeping it in a healthy condition."

Sharp, who studied forestry at Purdue, has a connection to
Horticulture Park beyond his academic and career experiences. He and his wife,
a Purdue horticulture alumna, were married underneath the park's spruce trees
30 years ago.

As part of Purdue's sustainability efforts, Sharp and Helmkamp
work to keep the park as "green" as possible. An integrated pest
management system, which manages problems in as economically and
environmentally friendly a way as possible, is used and problems are
spot-treated, as opposed to mass treatment.

"We try to look for every alternative possible before we
look to pesticides," Helmkamp says. "And when we do, we try to use
natural products as much as possible."

To reduce waste and bring more variety to Horticulture Park,
Sharp takes plants displaced by campus construction and replants them in the
park. He recently spent time finding the right location to replant a set of
rhododendrons, a plant that can be difficult to move. The rhododendrons had
been on campus when Sharp attended Purdue 30 years ago.

"When we reuse plants in this way, we enhance
Horticulture Park and contribute to Purdue’s sustainability," Helmkamp
says. "Sometimes, we're also saving a bit of history."